Deciding whether to keep my Rio Nitrus or not

[geepondy]

I got it at Circuit City for $150 and have had it for a day and am still learning the ropes. The memory size is sufficient, the physical size is not imposing and the sound quality is decent. Also I took it out jogging this afternoon and it performed with flying colors. Quirks I have come across so far is that I have had trouble getting some mp3 songs to transfer to the unit. Being as how this is my first portable mp3 player, I don't if it is the player fault's or something to do with the encoding of the songs in question. These are all songs I've had for quite a while, mainly downloaded when the free Napster was in business. The songs do play fine thru the computer. Also when I went to upload the included songs to the computer hard drive, using a usb2 connection, it took a very long time and timed out in the middle of one song so I had to restart it again. Also for whatever reason the software will not connect to the Internet. I get a "malformed status-line in HTTP response", whatever that means when trying to connect. I have allowed the firewall (zone alarm pro) to connect whenever permissions have been asked. Likewise the CDBC ( I know I got it wrong back the service that downloads the title, artist and other song information) gives a cannot open socket error when trying to connect.

But mainly I find the sound is weak. Barely what I would consider adequate to good. Out of a volume scale that max's out at 30, I am always in the 20s, in many instances above 25. This is with the included earbugs. When I plug in my Sennhesiers HD497, the weakness is even more pronouced. I should have realized this might be a problem when I read the published audio output for the Rio Cali is pretty much double that of the Nitrus.

So I am hemming and hawing on whether to keep this unit or not. Also I hope Circuit City will take it back considering I had to mangle the package to get it out. Are there worthy alternatives I should consider? As mentioned the memory size is sufficent for me but I don't think I want to go smaller on the memory or much larger on the physical size form factor so that rules the bigger HD sized players such as the Ipod. If I keep the Nitrus, I'd like to get another pair of headphones such as maybe the Senn PX100's as I don't like to wear the in ear buds that much but I fear any set I may purchase will sound even weaker then the included buds. I really don't want to get a headphone amp, that defeats the purpose of the small player size.

 

[austonia]

you need Karma

 

[Edvard_Grieg]

Circuit City should take it back, they are generally VERY good about that sort of thing, if you are looking for something in that size etc, and don't want the extra bulk of the Karma, take a look at the new Carbon that was just announced. It should be in stores by the end of the month, it will have ~4x the storage, and better battery life. On top of that it will have USB MSC support, so it might be a better option if size is an issue. If it isn't I second Austonia's comment, that yes, you need Karma!

 

[Davnport]

I say that if you aren't happy with it, take it back. Get the money back and save for the newer rio models coming out. If you like power, you might look into getting a portable amp to help drive your headphones. Look over in the amp for sale section... something like a cmoy or a supermini might be a good starting point.

 

[KenW]

Quote:

Originally Posted by austonia you need Karma

And I need Chroma!! Rio needs to push this thing to market!!

 

[Davnport]

Quote:

Originally Posted by KenW And I need Chroma!! Rio needs to push this thing to market!!

Seriously! Besides, the sooner they get it to market, the sooner they will be stealing some of the market from ipod. More competition will hopefully lead to that better, cheaper product faster!

 

[geepondy]

I will beat on the Nitrus for a week or so but probably will end up keeping it. I am most likely going to order a set of Sennheiser PX100's but does somebody want to talk me out of it and suggest a better set of cans for this unit? Keep in mind I will be using it to exercise so want PX sized cans not some full over the whole ear type of cans.